Walking on the glacier to the Grand Capucin

• Early in the sunny morning on the 6th of August, 2008, our little group reached Helbronner by cable car from La Palud, near to Courmayeur in Italy. The young and kind guida alpina di Courmayeur Anna Torretta led me and a second person, an Italian companion, from Punta Helbronner (3462 m) in direction of the Grand Capucin. With rope, crampons, ice axe or sticks we started our walk on the Glacier du Géant.

• Descending from Pt Helbronner we continued the route beneath the Tour Ronde. Descending and ascending… On the way we passed big and gigantic crevasses. Sometimes we crossed a bergschrund, at all events we paid attention and took a long step over the obstacle!

• For a time the sun was shining and we saw a big granite tower in the sun, the Grand Capucin, in the background the Mont Blanc in majesty. On the way we had a good view of Tour Ronde, Mont Maudit and Mont Blanc du Tacul. We looked at the mighty Aiguille Verte and the wonderful Dent du Géant.
  
  At the moment, when I saw the beauty of Mont Blanc and Grand Capucin, I understood very well Rahel's climbing (2004) in this mountain area.
  

• But the weather changed quickly, more clouds were gathering above the Mont Blanc. Our careful guida alpina Anna remembered us that there were very dark clouds over the Chamonix valley, surely it was raining in Chamonix and perhaps there was snowfall on the Mont Blanc. Only a short time remained to take a photo of the Grand Capucin and the surroundings, then we decided to go back to the new Torino Hut. We didn’t like to finish our walking in a thunderstorm on the glacier.

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